3RDegree

New album is companion piece to 2015’s ONES & ZEROS: VOLUME 1
Independent American progressive rock band 3RDegree will release the follow-up to Ones & Zeros: Volume 1 on April 30, 2018. Envisioned as a prequel (that’s still a thing right?), it is aptly titled Ones & Zeros: Volume 0. Where Volume 1 imagined a world transformed by a Technological Singularity, Volume 0 supplies the backstory nearer to present-day.

Instead of a landscape dominated by a ubiquitous corporation, the world is seen through the eyes of cybernetic
companions, ambi]ous transhumanist parents, lonely internet trolls, social-media addicts trying to expand their personal brand and elites buying acres in New Zealand to ride out the apocalypse. And in true 3RDegree fashion, this is all delivered with a healthy dose of dark humor using melodic, song-based progressive rock as the vehicle.

3RDegree are coming off a high following 2015’s Ones & Zeros: vol. 1-the final release from 10T Records.
The collection garnered the best reviews of their career including a third-place finish on Progarchives.com’s year-end list just behind Anekdoten and Steven Wilson. It also set them on a tour that included five European countries and several US states, highlighted by performances at the Summer’s End Festival (UK) and 2016’s RoSfest in Gegysburg, Pennsylvania. Their most recent appearance at the budding ProgStock Festival (NJ), featured a stage show replete with ornate video
backdrop and a Ted Talk-ish narrator purpor]ng to be from the fictious Valhalla Biotech Corporation which features large in Ones & Zeros.

Just For Kicks (Germany), Syn-Phonic (US), KinesisCD (US) and others. Download will be available on
iTunes, Amazon and most others although 24bit/44.1khz version will be exclusive to Bandcamp and the
band’s website.

The “Ones & Zeros Show” Tour 2018 (previewed here in the video below) comes to the following cities and
venues on these dates:
May 11 The Delancey New York, NY
May 12 Private Event Bal]more area (email band for invita]on)
May 13 Roxy & Dukes Roadhouse (NJ Proghouse presents) Dunellen, NJ
May 15 Reggie’s Chicago, IL
May 16 Wilbert’s Cleveland, OH
May 18 The Port Theater Cornwall, ON Canada
May 19 Starlite Southbridge, MA
May 20 The Hatbox Theater Concord, NH
Please note that a special “meet & greet” with members of the band will take place in the merch rooms
at RoSfest at the Majestic Theater in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania all day Saturday, May 5th.

3RDegree

These are various aspects of our future possibly on their way to becoming commonplace. These are the things on the mind of 3RDegree and make up its fifth and first full concept studio album ONES & ZEROS: vol. 1-their first for label 10T Records. All songs offer a unique take on the issues and ethics associated with the rapid progress of technology. Ray Kurzweil & others
have been discussing futurism and transhumanism since the 1970s but only now are we seeing it impact our daily lives.

Spearheaded by 1990’s-era members California guitarist Patrick Kliesch & New Jersey lead vocalist/keyboardist George Dobbs, the rest of the band shortly pitched in different songs-all closely associated with the overall theme. As with previous albums, both fully-fledged and skeletal ideas were created and passed between band members via the Internet and worked on in
the flesh soon after.

ONES & ZEROS: vol. 1 continues to embody the musical direction envisioned by band founders Robert James Pashman & Patrick Kliesch in 1990: to create interesting and engaging music that mixes accessible melodies and catchy hooks with the intelligence and complexity of Progressive Rock. Releasing a debut cassette in THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE in 1993 (w/ Pashman on lead vocals), 3RDegree decided to step up their game in 1995, adding a world class lead vocalist in George Dobbs and releasing their first CD (second “album”), 1996’s HUMAN INTEREST STORY, which was re-released digitally in 2013, remastered. After playing many live shows in the New York City area gaining little traction, the band hung it up, leaving much material sitting on the proverbial cutting room floor. Dobbs would continue musical endeavors including solo albums, Pashman and Kliesch would work on projects together (P0rtal) and a solo album each apart…but talk of 3RDegree was couched in the past tense until Pashman would make a video collection in 2005, putting together all the band’s music videos and performances onto DVD and basement tapes onto CDs. Discussion of the songs left behind bubbled under throughout that year until the original trio met at a NYC bar where it was agreed upon that the band would record again and later, play reunion concerts at NJ Proghouse in 2007 with original drummer Rob Durham and long time collaborator, guitarist Eric Pseja.

2008 saw the release of NARROW-CASTER (which included the aforementioned songs along with brand new ones) making a big splash in small progressive rock ponds worldwide with the Dutch Progressive Rock Page (DPRP.net) reveling: “It’s not often an album as refreshing as this comes along, and we should treasure it when it does…an album that demands repeated spins, and rewards every listen with some new revelation”. In 2009, drummer Aaron Nobel joined and the band played shows in Brooklyn (w/Phideaux), Connecticut (Marprog), Washington D.C & North Carolina’s ProgDay (w/Ozric Tentacles) later finding themselves working on some tracks with two different themes but with election year coming in 2012, the band decided that their political crop of songs would be particularly timely. THE LONG DIVISION would be released ahead of election day followed by many 2013 mid-year shows performed with IZZ, The Tea Club, Half Past Four, Dreadnaught and others culminating in a return visit to ProgDay ’13’s pre-show-all with new lead guitarist Bryan Zeigler. The album’s single “You’re Fooling Yourselves” made the Top 10 Songs Of The Year at DPRP’s yearly Poll (alongside many, much more “established” bands) and-even now-sits high in the Top Albums of 2012 at ProgArchives.com. After two “DIY” album successes, the band nonetheless decided to join forces with 10T Records to open up new ears to the band’s unique take on a loved genre. In early 2014, the band made an appearance at Québec City’s Terra Incognita Festival, w/Glass Hammer-3RDegree’s first show outside the USA.

In July 2015, 3RDegree released a new album on a new label and are poised to play a tour that will not only hit the American northeast, but also the U.K. (England & Wales), France, Germany & The Netherlands. 2016 holds in store a completed second volume of Ones & Zeros as well as additional live performances.

Orion Tango

Astounding playing all around by the trio of ORION TANGO on their instrumental debut album which features the seasoned talents of Barry Meehan on bass, Tim Motzer on guitars, + electronics, and Jeremy Carlstedt (protege of Chico Hamilton) on drums.

The Orion Tango album is no-holds-barred avant rock, filtered by somnambulant clouds of sound, held down and dosed heavily by Meehan’s stalwart bass playing. He inhabits a unique bass world―Astounding playing all around by the trio of ORION TANGO on their instrumental debut album which features the seasoned talents of Barry Meehan on bass, Tim Motzer on guitars, + electronics, and Jeremy Carlstedt (protege of Chico Hamilton) on drums.

Jeremy Carlstedt’s propulsive and dynamic drumming needs no introduction, a NYC jazz-rock drummer, who swings and composes, and is certainly one of the East Coast’s finest players.

Their debut album is a tour de force― 3 masters at work― creating in the moment in the studio. Meehan’s bass drives and anchors the record―amongst Motzer and Carlstedt’s extended flights―no overdubs―telepathically improvised compositions.

Tim Motzer After 17 years of world touring, stunning collaborations, and over 70 albums of credits this Philadelphia-based guitarist continues to traverse manifold territories in music and has developed a distinct textural guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques.

He has collaborated musical luminaries: David Sylvian, Burnt Friedman, Jaki Liebezeit (CAN), Ursula Rucker, King Britt, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Pat Mastelotto, Julie Slick, Tobias Ralph, Markus Reuter, Kurt Rosenwinkel among many others. As a leader, his projects include Orion Tango, RMS, Goldbug, Instant Takemitsu, Global illage, Base3, Nucultures, & Tim Motzer SOLO. He releases his genre-defying solo work and collaborations on his 1k Recordings imprint and webcasts sessions from his studio on 1ksessions.com. He composes for film and video, and scores for choreographers in the world of modern dance.

Jeremy Carlstedt New York City-based drummer/songwriter/vocalist Jeremy Carlstedt has performed with some of the most forward thinking artists in jazz, rock, electronic and world music. As a protege of the legendary Chico Hamilton, Jeremy has absorbed music history in the best possible classroom: on the bandstand as a member of Hamilton’s group Euphoria as well as Vincent Chancey’s Phat Chance, Brian Settles and Central Union, and collaborations with guitarist Tim Motzer, which have put him on some of the world’s most prestigious stages including, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Newport Jazz Festival, Syracuse Jazz Festival and Roulette. Jeremy’s first solo recording, ‘When I Wake Up’ , released in October 2012, is an art-rock EP featuring his drumming, vocals and compositions. His forthcoming album ‘Stars Are Far’ due out in 2015, will feature his band (Brian Settles, Tim Motzer, Eric Wheeler, and Carlstedt) in a compositional and improvisational free jazz setting.

Barry Meehan Originally from the Cincinnati-area,where he worked with adrian belew and the bears, Meehan moved to Philadelphia and eventually became involved with cutting edge musicians in the experimental jazz scene. He’s no stranger to 1k Recordings fans either, having played bass & collaborated on numerous recordings by Nucultures, Base3, Secret Voices, Goldbug, Fractured Reverb Underground, and Orion Tango. A stalwart bassist and wonderful song writer, his list of credits also includes touring internationally with the Sister Gertrude Experience.

Orion Tango album review:

IT TAKES 3 TO TANGO

A tango is all about moving smoothly as one with your partner. Orion Tango’s tango is all about doing the same thing between minds and instruments. The newest project from Philadelphia’s genre-defying 1k Recordings label consists of guitarist Tim Motzer, bassist Barry Meehan and drummer Jeremy Carlstedt: a team of premier musicians who’ve played together in various settings in the past, but never in this trio configuration before. Their self-titled debut shows both the familiarity of longtime collaborators and the eagerness of a fresh outfit just discovering what it can do.

Drawing on the experimental spirit of Krautrock as much as the deep rhythmic stew of urban dub, offering infectious power-rock grooves and occasional noise on the edge of chaos, Orion Tango is a thick slice of heavy power-trio improv as this crew does it best. It’s a treat for familiar 1k listeners who love the forward-thinking eclecticism of Base3 or Global Illage, newcomers looking for one of the most exciting under-the-radar discoveries of the season, or just anyone with adventurous ears. Catch them onstage this fall and be ready for anything.

Oblivion Sun

Oblivion Sun is the brainchild of Frank Wyatt and Stanley Whitaker, founding members of 70’s Arista recording artists Happy The Man. HTM reformed in 1999 to headline Nearfest 2000 and they released their first CD in almost 25 years, “The Muse Awakens” in 2004. Frank and Stan recognized the difficulty in getting together to work on new HTM music due to personal schedules and proximity. They had amassed an abundance of material that they feared would never get recorded if they waited for HTM to record it. It was out of this reality that they began recording the duo project “Pedal Giant Animals”. The PGA project, with guest musicians Chris Mack and Pete Princiotto, became the seed for a new band…Oblivion Sun.

Oblivion Sun comfortably crosses many genres while staying true to their progressive roots. This is a band that’s not afraid to get downright funky at times and throw down some serious rock grooves and even improvisation. Expect a good deal of vocal content as well but fear not, this is still prog and fans of HTM’s lush arrangements will not be disappointed.

The ensemble features the compositional and performance skills of all four musicians: Stan Whitaker on guitar and vocals, Frank Wyatt on keyboards and reeds, Bill Brasso on drums, and David Hughes on bass and vocals. Together, Oblivion Sun have created a powerful, dynamic sound that is sure to satisfy all prog fans, young and old alike. The band has quickly established itself as a forerunner in the ongoing evolution of progressive music. In January of 2013, the band released their sophomore effort entitled “The High Places.” This tour-de-force maintains the band’s instrumental progressive roots while expanding their songwriting style. They plan to tour in the U.S. and are looking towards Europe in 2014. They have put together a live performance set that will combine music from both Oblivion Sun albums and some prime cuts from the Happy the Man days.

3RDegree

“You’re Fooling Yourselves!”, wails 3RDegree lead singer/keyboardist George Dobbs on the band’s lead-off single from the new CD THE LONG DIVISION-their first since 2008. This song-as well as a few others on the first half of the album-flesh out the band’s 2012 political treatise: that America’s political parties (and probably those in other countries) have long divided it’s populous on the basis of color, salary, sex, age and much else, have played on their fears, and have used their accumulated powers to build up largesse to keep their supporters in the fold. Ok, it’s not always that heavy, but the album was penned in the shadow of the 2008 economic collapse that was happening right as 3RDegree were releasing their first album in 12 years: NARROW-CASTER. While that third album was a combination of fresh songs and resurrected ideas from the period just before the band’s original breakup in 1997, THE LONG DIVISION is in the shared vintage of Tea Parties, Occupy Movements, shovel-ready jobs and banks and car companies “too big to fail”.

As with the last album, Los Angeles-based Pat Kliesch (guitarist/backing vocalist) would share ideas back and forth with his two New Jersey band mates: band leader Robert James Pashman (bassist/keyboardist /backing vocalist), and the aforementioned Dobbs. Using online tools to share and with all three proficient with digital audio workstations such as ProTools, demos were created and shared with new band mates Eric Pseja (guitarist/backing vocalist who had been working with the band since their 2007 The Reunion Concerts DVD/Blu-ray) and Aaron Nobel (drummer who was added just in time for the Live At ProgDay 2009 DVD/Blu-ray-replacing the departed Rob Durham) before going into the studio to record the foundation drum tracks. Songs like the Dobbs-penned “The Socio-Economic Petri Dish” and “Memetic Pandemic” would be shared with North Carolina’s ProgDay audience in their embryonic states, but all else except the live favorite “A Work Of Art” featuring Pashman on piano with Dobbs singing beside him-and the only track resurrected from the 90’s incarnation of the band-would be arranged later on.

After the big splash in small progressive rock ponds worldwide that NARROW-CASTER had made throughout 2009 with the Dutch Progressive Rock Page (DPRP.net) reveling: “It’s not often an album as refreshing as this comes along, and we should treasure it when it does…an album that demands repeated spins, and rewards every listen with some new revelation”, 3RDegree tried writing/demoing and performing occasional shows in Brooklyn (alongside Phideaux), Connecticut’s Marprog (with Holding Pattern), outside Washington D.C and Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s ProgDay (with Ozric Tentacles), but found that doing live shows once in a while was really slowing down the process of getting another studio album together. Stretching things even further, 3RDegree found that they were working on some tracks with another theme that weren’t going to work in this collection. Good news though: perhaps the wait for a fifth album will be a shorter one than ever before!

THE LONG DIVISION carries on the mission statement created 20 years earlier by Pashman and Kliesch in the infancy of the band when they would try mixing accessible melodies with the conventions of progressive rock to a pre-internet, cover-band loving New Jersey: no need to wax poetic here. Releasing a debut cassette THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE in 1993 (with Pashman on lead vocals), 3RDegree then decided to step up their game in 1995, adding a world class lead vocalist in George Dobbs and releasing their first CD-1996’s HUMAN INTEREST STORY. After playing many live shows in the NYC area gaining little traction, the band hung it up, leaving much of a nascent NARROW-CASTER sitting on the cutting room floor. Dobbs would continue musical endeavors including solo albums, Pashman and Kliesch would work on projects together and a solo album each apart, but talk of 3RDegree was couched in the past tense until Pashman would make a video collection in 2005, putting together all the band’s music videos and performances onto DVD and arranging demo cassettes onto CDs. Discussion of the songs left behind bubbled under throughout that year until all original members met at a NYC bar after Christmas where it was agreed upon that the band would record again.

So while NARROW-CASTER felt more like a “comeback” album, THE LONG DIVISION is possibly a more impressive feat for the band: a fresh helping of tracks illustrating the band’s 20 year old formula need not be tinkered with for any perceived audiences’ expectations.

Originating in the shadow of 2008’s worldwide financial meltdown and concluding on the threshold of 2012’s presidential election, 3RDegree’s The Long Division takes on all of the most divisive topics in recent U.S. news. First single, “You’re Fooling Yourselves” delivers a pointed dismissal of political extremism, lockstep thinking and pigeonholing. “Incoherent Ramblings” takes jabs at cliche-spewing political strategists from the POV of the strategist! “The Socio-Economic Petri Dish” questions politicians placating their constituents with riches regardless of their means — all served up in engaging progressive rock fashion. Prog rock? Yes-you wouldn’t know it unless you searched the internet or yearly music festivals-but it indeed lives on.

The decidedly American slant of the album’s content was at first a concern to 3RDegree, who currently enjoy a diverse international audience built largely by Internet reviews of their 2008 release Narrow-Caster. “Funny thing is that the art was done by a Brit living in Montreal, Canada,” says Ridgefield Park, NJ bassist and band-founder Robert James Pashman.

“When pitching the cover idea, I hardly had to explain to him about U.S. politics and our two-party system. Because of this, my concerns about the album themes not resonating with our audience abroad was allayed.”

Although 3RDegree’s global popularity is currently on the rise, finding new fans in the early to mid-1990’s was difficult at best. “It became too hard to fill live venues in cover-band-loving New Jersey, even with two albums and a small but dedicated fan-base, so we called it quits for a while,” recalls lead-guitarist and songwriter Pat Kliesch who now resides in California. “But as the Internet was starting to be recognized as an invaluable PR tool for bands like us, we decided to give it another go. It was the right time, too since sites like ReverbNation and Facebook were making it so much easier to get our music heard. That, and it also allows me to continue to write, record and participate even though I’m now thousands of miles away from New Jersey.”

As more and more mainstream bands took to their computers to get their music out, 3RDegree was also using the Internet to prove that prog-rock stereotypes can be overcome. In a musical genre often accused of being cold and soulless, 3RDegree’s spirit shines through in their versatile lead vocalist/keyboardist/songwriter George Dobbs. The Harrington Park, NJ native explains, “This album has a lot of places where I have to sing almost as a political creature. On the first song, “You’re Fooling Yourselves”, I have to be a left-wing firebrand in the first verse and chorus, a right-wing mouthpiece in the second and the voice of reason in the third,” muses Dobbs. “It was a great challenge to pull this off without being preachy or too trite. That’s the risk you take with material like this, but the atmosphere the last few years was just too rich to not delve into.”

“Even though we’re all over the map politically,” comments New Haven, Connecticut-based drummer Aaron Nobel, “creating this album really uncovered some self-evident truths that most people have forgotten in all the rancor. We tried focusing on the things we all hated about the process, and quickly realized there’s no finding a solution if you’re simply defying your opposition.”

While about half the album contains commentary on political malfeasance delivered amidst challenging musical arrangements and memorable melodies, 3RDegree managed to leave their own personal politics out. “While some songs started as screeds from one political point of view by one particular band member, we were very careful to try and present matters as observation rather than opinion,” says Westwood, NJ guitarist Eric Pseja.

“We’re not pundits, but we do hope that our music inspires some political self-reflection.”

The Long Division also represents some musical milestones for 3RDegree. “Our fan base has been encouraging us to expand beyond our earlier works,” explains Pashman, “so we’ve rewarded them with four of our longest songs and some of our most challenging “proggy” instrumental breaks. It’s a pretty thick album, and there’s a lot of nuance to discover on subsequent listens. I guess that’s why some fans who had an early listen via crowd-funding efforts think it’s our best album yet!”

And now the word is indeed out with DPRP.net (The Dutch Progressive Rock Page) weighing in with a “duo review” where The Long Division garnered a 9/10 and 9.5/10 stating: “Overall, we have an album that consists of thoughtfully constructed songs, with intelligent lyrics, plenty of melodic hooks, and accomplished musicianship with enough Prog elements to satisfy the die-hards, and there’s not a weak track to be found. When I approached this album I was worried that the bar had been set too high with Narrow-Caster, and the band couldn’t possibly hope to surpass it. I’m happy to say I was totally, utterly wrong.”